As we move into the offseason, there are two major areas we review as part of last year’s season: the training plan and the races. What did we take away that was positive and what needs to be addressed going into 2014?

What’s the Plan?
Specifically, we want to address the planning aspect of each. For example, before any bike race, at any level, you see teams meeting and plotting out their “plan.” They are deciding in advance what they are going to do to achieve their goals during the race.

Argos-Shimano planning their race at the Tour of Oman this year – ‘Set it up for the big guy with the funny hair’.

There is a lot of validity in doing this because obviously without a good strategy and assignments for the riders, hopes of a good result basically disappear for the team. As a coach, creating a plan for an individual rider is also important, although the team plan has to factor in when deciding what an individual will do.

Let’s look at a plan from another perspective, the training plan. This is the same idea with a different goal. Here of course, you are planning your training schedule to accomplish your goals as an athlete. Workouts, load, and specific events are laid out in advance in hopes the athletes can follow the training plan and lead to success. A solid training plan requires a starting point, an end point, and the path to get there.

Predicting the Future
I don’t even know who Ben Bayol is, but he was quoted as saying “Most plans are just inaccurate predictions.”

And this couldn’t be truer as it applies to cycling. Bike racing, as most know is so unique from other team sports. Like I have said in the past, it’s the only sport I know of where a team works for the glorification of one individual. In any bike race, you have multiple teams, of all sizes and ability, all with different strategies, mixing it up, non-stop for the length of the race.

Predicting the outcome of something like that is like chaos theory (unpredictable) and next to impossible. Imagine basketball having 10 teams on the court at the same time, all with a goal of scoring the most points in one basket, non-stop for 60’ with no substitutions! Chaotic!

That quote above from Bayol rings pretty true in bike racing. So many individuals and teams have a plan that is pretty much shot almost immediately after the race begins.

Adjustments
This leads to adjustments, the focus of this article. Racing isn’t not so much about the plan you have, it’s the adjustments you make when the plan goes off course.

Here is a simple example, which seems to happen often in criterium racing. Your team (Team A) has a super sprinter, pretty much a lock to win if the race comes down to a field sprint on the last lap. With three laps to go, there is a lull in the race (again, happens often) and four rather strong riders, who haven’t been doing anything but sitting in and conserving energy, somehow attack together and get a fifteen second gap on the field rather quickly.

What does Team A do? Well, we will leave that up to Team A and another article. But the main point is they have to make an “adjustment” to their pre-race plan. And when you think about it, the adjustment they make in response to this new situation (without a time out) is their key to success.

As another example, you see and hear about adjustments when watching basketball, football and hockey. As the teams leave the playing area, the announcers always make a comment as to how the coach will have to make adjustments to what is going on during the game. The team had a plan, but because of what their competition was doing, their plan was no longer effective and adjustments will have to be made.

Adjustments get you back on track and need to be executed often. They also require close monitoring of the situation. In other words, in cycling a coach has to be on top of what is going on every day. In a bike race, it requires the team (without a coach, but hopefully with an experienced leader) to be active in the race, up front, and attentive and most importantly have good communication.

Training Plan Adjustments
So, as we are approaching the heart of the road off-season and preparing for the upcoming 2014 season by creating a training program for the next 6-8 weeks, what are some of the events that may cause us to make adjustments (in no particular order of importance) to the training plan?

• Family/work/school – For most athletes, cycling is not their primary source of income. There are other more important areas of life and these areas take priority, as they should.

• Sickness – Doesn’t it seem that there really isn’t a cold or flu season anymore? Doesn’t it seem like it pretty much happens all year? Get though the sickness, let your body recover and listen to what it’s telling you.

• Injury – Overuse and crashes are an unfortunate part of cycling, and can happen at any time of the year.

Those are just a few of the events that can force us to alter the plan and reassess. And that is the key, reassess. Discuss with your coach and reroute your training in the right direction. Just like a plane flying into a strong weather system, they make the safe adjustment to avoid danger and fly around the storm.

And one strong bit of advice. Don’t try to make up time lost because of life events. One of the biggest mistakes an endurance athlete can do is try to make up time by doing more. It can only lead to the potential of fatigue and injury.

Summary
Making plans for any area of bike racing is important. But what is more important is the overall monitoring of these plans and adjustments made to get them back on track. Most plans never follow the path they were intended to. So, pay close attention, understand that adjustments will have to be made, stay positive and focused!

Ride safe, ride strong,
Bruce

Finally, I want to give a quick shout out to the latest Tour of California announcement bringing back the 2014 race to Sacramento and our home, Folsom for the first two days, including the time trial. The buzz around here is already super high and we are thrilled to show off our area for the first two days of the race!